Over the Memorial Day weekend, theres been lots of drama regarding The Dirty.com and their claims that Kobe Bryant is cheating on his wife (again) with a Laker Girl by the name of Vanessa Curry. Word of the affair leaked out into the Lakers organization and Vanessa Curry was forced to resign. Kobe had his lawyers send over a cease and desist letter, and requested they removed any and all references to Bryant from the site (which appears to have been ignored).

This is what The Dirty alleges:

“DIRTY ARMY intel was received about an alleged torrid affair between Kobe Bryant and Vanessa Curry (not his wife, Vanessa Bryant). The Dirty Source stated this was definitely a cloak and dagger affair… completely covert. The Dirty Source is holding images as well. This alleged affair lead to the forced resignation of Vanessa from the 07-08 Laker Girls Squad. We reached out to Vanessa and the Laker’s organization to get statements. The Lakers claim that Vanessa resigned from the squad to pursue a “hosting career”. Vanessa obviously did not want to speak… though BTW she has a sexy voice!”

Do you think reporting/blogging of this nature does more harm than good? Do you enjoy hearing the juicy details of athlete infidelity and other miscellaneous debauchery? Or are you a “traditionalist” in the sense that you only wish to hear whats relevant on the field of play? Vote in the poll below….

A few of you may be familiar with the story Sportaphile posted on Karl Malone’s son Demetrius Bell. Demetrius was conceived with a 13 year old girl named Gloria Bell while Karl was a a 20 something year old in college. Being anti-Karl Malone all my life…. I predictably let him have it (and he deserved it), but it warmed my heart to see a law professor at Howard University do the same.

Lisa A. Crooms says everything exactly the way I would have …. if I happened to be a law professor who used perfect grammar.

“One person I’m sure is glad Maury wasn’t deep into his babydaddy thing in the 1980s is Karl Malone. In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit I’ve never liked Karl Malone and, for that reason, I’ve been a die-hard anti-Utah Jazz fan. Whether it’s a function of his famous flop, whining about referees’ calls or his counter-Charles Barkley, “I am a role model” crap, I always found it easy to dislike Malone’s game.

If Maury had embarked on his golden formula a decade earlier, however, it is easy to imagine an episode that introduced Maury fans to two mothers, three children and one man. Bonita Ford and Gloria Bell claim Karl Malone impregnated them as teenagers and failed to take care of his responsibilities.”

You know how Maury does those cheesy pre-confrontation vignettes? With a guy standing in a dark room with a fog machine to add ambiance, and the proceeds to read cue cards that say how angry he is?

“I am a budding national basketball star, and I won’t these two small town SKANKS ruin my life with babies that ain’t mine Maury!!!”

In recent conversations with men who were privy to those discussions, I learned that former secondary coach Clancy Pendergast, now the defensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals, had serious concerns about Williams’ ability to learn the defense. When he traveled to the Oklahoma campus and put Williams on the dry erase board, he quickly learned that it would be a difficult transition for the college All American. Veteran scout Jim Hess, a former college coach, agreed with Pendergast’s assessment.

Guess it’s not jealousy, but inability, however, that is not a shining endorsement. We’ve heard this before haven’t we? Dwayne Jarrett? Outside of that, if Williams is cut, who will take a player that can’t learn a system? By even mentioning this Williams’ future value could be in jeopardy.

In other news, Joey Porter has expressed his opinion. What else is new? On one hand, this sounds like sour grapes. On the other hand, he has legit beef with how Goodell handled the whole Spygate fiasco and the perceived advantage the Patriots obtained from taping signals. The problem is that Joey Porter is too quick to insert his foot in his mouth with amazing dexterity. If some of those “NFL players who share similar sentiments about the Patriots concerning Spygate spoke out that would bolster Porter a bit.

Although the NFL season only technically lasts four months, the amount of offseason work players endure turns their job into a year round affair. Every spring, each team has voluntary workouts and mini-camps for their players to condition themselves for training camp (which takes place later in the summer).

Each year, there is an inevitable case of “player x” who chooses not to participate in the voluntary workouts. More often than not, “player x” is painted in a negative light by the media (and sometimes his team) by not showing up to a voluntary team function. This doesn’t necessarily mean the player doesn’t want to get in shape, some guys simply choose to train privately or in a close knit group with others.

What really gets on my nerves is how choosing not to show up to a “voluntary” function instantly means you’re “selfish”, “lazy”, “disgruntled” or “uncooperative”. I was watching SportsCenter the other day and the topic of the moment was “Why Isn’t Kellen Winslow Attending Voluntary Workouts??”… Hmm… maybe he isn’t required to be there and exercised his right to do whatever the F’ he pleases.

The simple solution for NFL teams would be ….. if you want the guys there… make the offseason work outs mandatory and be done with it.